ApicturewiththreeTsina row,the
obviouscaptionread‘thickT-shaped
junctions’.Aninterpretivecaption
mightread‘trumpetvalves’,because
thethreeTsresemblethefingerbut-
tonsona trumpet.
Someoftheinterpretivecaptions
weredesignedtobefunny.On a
drawingoftwohorizontal
ovalswedgedinsidea
verticalone,theob-
viouscaptionread
‘twosmallerhori-
zontalellipsesin
alargervertical
ellipse’.Thein-
terpretive de-
scription:‘Close-
upofa piglooking
atbooktitlesin a
library’.(Lookatthe
drawingbelow.)Thesub-
jectswereaskedtorateeach
captionas‘notfunny’,‘alittlefunny’,
o r‘ f u n n y ’.
Asexpected,theinterpretivecap-
tionslitupmoreareasofthebrain
thantheirobviouscounterparts– in
linewiththecognitivetheorythat
insightinandofitselfis pleasurable.
The scans also
revealedthathu-
morousinsights
activatedthemost
regions.Thefun-
nierthe subjects
rateda caption,
themoreneurons
werefired. Itis
thisextraburstofbrainactivationat
themomentwe‘get’a jokethattrans-
forms‘aha’into‘haha’,Amirand
Biedermanconcluded.What’smore,
theopioidreceptorstheywerestud-
yingarelocatedinthehigher-level
processingareasofthe temporal
lobes,wherewestorethemem-
oriesandassociationswe
usetomakesenseof
theworld.Theyalso
haveconnections
toneuronsinthe
basalganglia,the
rewardcentreof
thebrain.
“Wehadcome
tothinkofthese
perceptualsystems
asrelativelymun-
danestructuresmeant
simplytopassivelygetus
information,”Biedermansays.
“Butitturnsoutthatgettingnewin-
formationisactuallypleasurable.”
Fromthere,theresearcherstook
theiranalysisonestepfurther.Ina
follow-upstudy,Amirrecruitedpeo-
pletocomposecaptionsfora series
of cartoons whilehescannedtheir
brains.Whenthey
came up with a
joke,thesamere-
gionsofthebrain
thatlightupwhen
peopleappreciate
humourwereac-
tivated.And,asin
the first study, theIf appreciating
humourisgood
exerciseforourbrains,
thenwritinga joke
isexercise
on steroidsIsthisapictureof
threeovals,orisita
piglookingatbook
titlesonalibrary
shelf?Thefunnier
captionactivates
more of your brain.36 April 2020
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